The Taraba Tiv Youth Development Forum (TTYDF) has described the insinuation by the Jukun Youths and Cultural Association that the Tiv people resident in Wukari, part of Taraba State are non-indigenes but mere settlers as a crass show of ignorance.
The president of the forum, Torkuma Luper Moses, made the assertion in a press statement issued yesterday in Jalingo in reaction to an earlier statement issued by the Jukun Youth Forum.
The protracted feud between the Tiv and Jukun tribes in some parts of Southern Taraba has resulted in the deaths of thousands of persons, displacement of several thousands and destruction of property worth hundreds of millions over the decades.
Moses maintained that the Tiv people, who have been living in the area even before the colonial era cannot be tagged as settlers as no single tribe can lay claim to the exclusive right of the area around Wukari.
He said, “We want the JYCDA to tell us who an indigene is in Taraba, or what qualifies one to be an indigene, and how it is for the Jukun to have ancestral homes in Taraba State to the exclusion of the Tiv. JYCDA should be reminded that the Tiv people lived in the area now called Taraba State for a long period before the advent of colonialism. We shall have to educate the Jukun youths that some Aku Ukas such as Angyu Zakanju (1820-1845) and Agbumanu Agbu (1845-1860) had to seek the assistance of the Tiv who were already established in the area now called Taraba to save them (Jukun) from the hands of their enemies in wars. This was also the case in the early years of the reign of Aku Awudumanu Abite (1871-1903).
“Before the European exploration of the Benue River led by Dr. Baikie and Samuel Ajayi Crowther in 1854, the Tiv people were already established in the area later called the Wukari Federation.
“An encounter between a group of Tiv people in Ibi under Chief Njoro and Samuel Ajayi Crowther is a clear indication of this. In a brief interview with this cross section of Tiv at Ibi, Njoro explained that they were all people in the Wukari area. When Bishop Samuel Crowther wanted to know the boundary line between Tivland and the Jukun’s in the area then referred to as Wukari Federation, Njoro simply inserted his ten fingers together explaining that the Jukun and Tiv were a mixed people, inseparable and interlocked as his ten fingers. This story is in the public domain and one expects the Jukun youths who claim to be ‘the sons of the soil’ to have it on their fingertips.
“However, if these historical facts seem too distant and remote to the Jukun youths, they ought to know that when Wukari was under Muri or Munshi Province, the Tiv were the majority indigenous population. (by the way Munshi is a derogatory word for the Tiv people, further corrupted by the Europeans from the
Fulani version ‘Munchi’. Even after the creation of the Tiv Division in 1933, over 13,000 Tiv people were still indigenous to Wukari proper. This 13, 000 alone were more than the whole Jukun population under the Wukari Federation. Thus, for the Jukun youths to turn around and profile the Tiv people as settlers, guests, immigrants or non-indigenes in Taraba State is unashamedly duplicitous.
“Thus, the ignorant Jukun youths trying to project the idea of Taraba State being a Jukun State is at worst ignominious and disgusting. The idea has no basis and it stands history on the head.
“We call on all well-meaning people to ignore such blatant broad day lies and ignominious insensitivity by a section of the youths who are very ignorant, not well educated and not well-informed. Finally, we earnestly call on the State Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas to, as a matter of urgency, expedite action to ensure a speedy return, resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced Tiv people of Taraba State,” he said.
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